


If You Like It Then You Should'a Put A Ring On It...

by NeoCortex



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 10:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3443180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoCortex/pseuds/NeoCortex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles never said yes... But he hadn't said no yet either...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nikolas

**Author's Note:**

> The summary sucks. Sorry y'all. But I hope y'all like it either way.

     Stiles was sitting there staring at the ring on his hand. It was beautiful. And cold. The way diamond was supposed to be. A cold hard resistant piece of mineral. The strongest mineral on earth. Nothing was stronger.

But it was also unyielding. Unable to break or bend to any changes. Much like the man that had put it on his finger. And he hadn’t even given Stiles a chance to say yes or no. He automatically assumed that he would say yes.

Stiles loved the man sure. But he didn’t like to listen and he wasn’t very trusting- especially of Derek. And that bothered Stiles to no end…

**~5 Years Ago~**

     Stiles was sitting with his boyfriend on the couch. They were curled up together watching television- some reality TV crap that Nick liked to watch and Stiles wasn’t all that into. But Stiles loved him and he was willing to put up with it for now.

“So that guy you were talking to earlier- at your dad’s party?” Stiles was in town for the weekend of the Sheriff’s birthday and Nick had been invited along.

“You mean Derek?”

“I think so. The big guy with the eyebrows?”

“Yeah, that’s Derek.” There was a fondness in the way that Stiles said the name.

“I didn’t particularly like the way he was looking at you…”

Stiles frowned at the tone in the other’s voice, “What do you mean?” His eyes stayed on the TV as he waited.

“He kept looking at you the way someone eyes a piece of meat.” Nick sounded a bit huffy.

“Nickolas, you look at me that way.”

“Yeah, but I’m your boyfriend.”

Stiles sat up and glared at the blonde man, “So no one else is allowed to look at me as if they’d want me? Is that it? Nick you can’t stop someone from desiring me.”

“So you know that he wants you? You know that he’s in love with you?”

Stiles faltered in that moment and just sat there blinking at his boyfriend. Nick stared back for a moment before something seemed to dawn on him.

“You’re in love with him too…” That statement caused Stiles’ brain to reboot fast.

“It’s far more complicated than that Nick. I’ve known Derek for a long time. So yes, I love him.” He could see the anger in Nick’s face so he kept talking, “But I also love Scott. They’re my family. I love Derek. But I love _you_ and I’m with you. There is nothing you ever have to worry about.”

            But even with Stiles’ reassurances it seemed that Nick didn’t believe him.

**~2 Years Ago~**

     “I’m sorry Stiles, but no. We’re not going.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? My father has had a heart attack and is in the God damned hospital! He’s the only blood I have left alive and you’re going to keep me from seeing him? Are you out of you blasted mind?” Stiles was screaming at Nick with his phone clutched tightly in his hand. He’d gotten off the phone with Melissa ten minutes prior and had been arguing with his boyfriend ever since.

“There are other people there for him. We’re not going.”

“You’re fucking mental! Why the hell can’t I see my own father-“

“Because I don’t trust Derek! Not with you!”

Stiles staggered back a half step and stared at his blue eyed boyfriend in shock, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I don’t trust Derek alone with you. So I don’t want you going without me. And I work the night shift all week. We’ll go on Saturday.”

Stiles was still in shock but he huffed out a broken laugh and shook his head, “Whatever. We’ll talk when you get home.”

Nick may have tried to stop him but Stiles wasn’t listening. Instead he’d shut himself in their bedroom and began packing an overnight bag.

He’d gotten on a Red Eye to California 2 hours later and left Nick a note apologizing and calling him an asshole. Needless to say that argument resulted in Stiles moving into the second bedroom of their apartment and Nick not getting sex for nearly a year.

**~Present Day~**

     But now Stiles was sitting on his own bed in the house he’d grown up in while his boyfriend- who thought he was his fiancé- was outside in the back yard on the phone with his brother. They were no doubt discussing plans for a bachelor party that they didn’t know may or may not happen…

“Knock, knock?” Stiles looked up to see his dad standing in the doorway.

“Can I come in?” Stiles nods and pushes over as John steps in and turns to sit with him. “You look a little shocked, Bud. What’s up?”

Stiles’ lips form the words but no sound comes out.

“Let’s try that again with real sound this time.”

Stiles blinks and looks at his dad, “He asked me to marry him.”

The Sheriff doesn’t look surprised. But he does look concerned, “That’s great Stiles.” He doesn’t sound like it was great. “I’m very happy for you.”

“I didn’t say yes.”

“Oh. Okay?”

“I didn’t say no either.”

“And now I’m confused.”

“Nick didn’t give me a chance to answer him. He asked me to marry him, put the ring on my finger, and started talking about wedding plans and his mother’s ideas for everything and then his brother called and now they’re outside talking about God only knows what- but I’m sure it’s some bachelor party that may or may not happen!”

John was sitting there blinking as his son seemed to growl out his words all on one breath. And when it was over he watched as Stiles breathed heavily, “So you don’t want to marry him?”

“I don’t know.” And just like that Stiles deflated in on himself- his head hanging in shame. “I love him, I do. But I don’t know what to do.”

“What does your heart tell you to do?”

Amber eyes looked to the Sheriff in surprise as his mind whirled back to a time when someone else asked the same thing.

**~7 Years Ago~**

     “What does your heart tell you to do?” Derek was sitting at the Stilinski dining table across from Stiles with his hands around a warm mug of coffee and a sympathetic smile on his lips for the younger male.

“It’s telling me to go Derek… I want this. I got into the best school in Massachusetts. But… I don’t want to leave you. What if I-“ That’s where Derek stopped him.

“Stiles. Stop. If your heart tells you to go, then you go. If you find someone while you’re there then that’s okay. So long as you are happy. If you love him- or her- then that’s the only thing that matters. Mates aren’t always meant to be with each other first, last, and always. It’s just the perfect fit when both are ready.” Derek took one hand off the mug and reached across to take one of Stiles’, “I am always here when you’re ready Stiles. So again I ask you- what does your heart tell you to do?”

And that was how Stiles ended up living in Boston- a fifteen minute drive from where he went to college at Harvard Law School- with a man that he swore he loved.

**~Present Day~**

     “Stiles?”

“It’s telling me to go for a drive, Dad.” He was getting up and grabbing his keys before he could change his mind, “Don’t wait up for me.”

The Sheriff is left standing in the doorway of his house as his son’s jeep pulls out of the driveway- Nick is stepping into the spot behind him, “Where’s Stiles going?”

His only answer is, “For a drive.”


	2. Across Town At The Loft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malia is confuse.  
> Cora is frustrated.  
> And Derek and Stiles talk.

         "So what are you going to do? He’s kind of monopolized Stiles the entire time he’s been here. We have yet to get a chance to see him. And I kind of came back so I _could_ see him before his graduation.” Derek’s sister Cora was back in town- and as she’d stated to her brother she was here for Stiles.

“I don’t know Cor. Stiles told me once that Nick doesn’t like me and doesn’t trust me around Stiles. But that hasn’t really stopped him before.”

From her corner on the couch Malia Tate-Hale piped up, “What I don’t understand is why you don’t just claim him already. I mean he _is_ your mate.”

Derek chuckled a bit and looked over at his cousin, “It doesn’t quite work that way. Both parties have to be willing and ready for that. And besides, I promised Stiles I would be here whenever he was ready.”

Cora let out an impatient huff, “Well make him ready. Besides, you’ve had the ring for 2 years now. Just ask him already.”

“He’s still with Nick. I can’t be that guy, Cora.” Derek watched as his sister’s face took on a sympathetic countenance and she nodded.

“Yeah. Okay.”

At that point all 3 Hales looked to the large glass window as their ears picked up the tell-tale sound of a belt in need of changing. “Stiles is here!” Cora hopped up from her bean bag chair and skipped to the window and out to the balcony.

Several minutes later the young man in question was standing in the middle of the loft looking determined and upset.

“He asked me to marry him.”

Derek raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, “Why do you smell distressed? You love him don’t you?”

“Yes!” As Stiles spit out the word Derek could feel as his sister and his cousin got twitchy.

“But?”

“But I had to see you.” Stiles’ eyes had gotten wide and he seemed to be looking through Derek and not at him. The girls could sense the same thing Derek could. A coming storm in the Stilinski Mage.

Derek stood slowly and moved around his coffee table carefully so as not to spook Stiles, “Why did you have to see me?” He asked gently.

Amber eyes snapped to his face then and Stiles breathed, “My heart told me to.”

That’s about the time that Derek finds himself with his arms full of a sobbing Mage while the lights flicker on and off with the TV and other various electronics throughout the apartment.

            It was nearly 45 minutes before Stiles could calm down and another 10 after that before the electronics weren’t going on and off on their own. It was around the time of those ten minutes that Derek realized why. Stiles had fallen asleep.

With a glance at Cora and a nod to his own phone for her to text the Sheriff Derek scooped Stiles up into his arms and carried him up the stairs to his bedroom where he placed the younger male on his bed to allow him the sleep his body needed.

A few minutes later he was coming back down the stairs to hear Cora bid the Sheriff goodbye.

“He called after I texted him. Said he was a bit worried since Stiles left with only an explanation of ‘I’m going for a drive’ and a far off look after they talked. I told him that he was here, there had been a magical meltdown and he was now sleeping it off so he’d probably be here a while.” Derek gave her a nod as Malia cleared her throat.

“I’m confused.”

“What about?” He asked her as he moved back to his own couch seat.

“What did he mean by his heart told him to come see you?”

Derek huffed a small laugh and smiled. Sucking his bottom lip in he grinned as the memory came back to him and looked at Malia, “It goes back to a conversation we had a few days before he left for Harvard. He was confused on what to do about everything. He wanted to go to Harvard, but he didn’t want to leave me when we had only just started to go out and only just started to work on what our relationship could be. So I told him to listen to his heart and asked him what it was telling him to do.”

Cora was grinning now and she asked, “So then it told him to go? And today it told him to come to you?”

Derek nodded but Malia was frowning now, “Wait, if you guys were going out back then why didn’t you claim him as your mate then?”

“Because he wasn’t ready. And he still didn’t understand what it meant to be my mate.”

Malia was still confused, but apparently it was less so, “Okay. So is he ready now?”

“I don’t know yet,” Derek answered her honestly as he looked up at the stairs and listened in on the steady breathing and beating heart of his mate.

            It was several hours later- close to 6 o’clock- when Stiles finally woke up and came down the stairs. Seeing Malia and Cora he blushed a little and looked over at Derek, “I’m sorry I came over like that. But I had to see you…”

Derek shook his head and reached his hand out for the other, “It’s okay Stiles. Pack’s allowed to have a few breakdowns every now and then.”

Stiles nodded and moved over to Derek and immediately curled into his side.

“Now, do you _want_ to marry him?”

Instead of answering the question Stiles countered with one of his own, “Do _you_ want to marry me?”

“Yes. But this isn’t about me, Stiles-“

“Yes it is! If I marry him what then? What happens to us?”

“Stiles, I told you then and I’m telling you again now, I will be here, whenever you’re ready.”

Stiles looked up at Derek now with wide eyes, “You’re ready aren’t you?”

Derek let out a little laugh and nodded, “I am. I have been for 8 years now.”

Stiles’ mouth formed into an ‘o’ of surprise before he found the voice again to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You weren’t ready.”

“But I love you.”

A small grin crossed the werewolves’ lips now, “Loving me and being ready, the same thing they are not.” He said as he cupped one of Stiles’ cheeks in the palm of his hand.

This seemed to cause something to click in Stiles’ brain because his face lightened up and his eyes went wide again and his breathing picked up slightly with barely contained laughs.

“Are you?”

A few minutes passed before Stiles was able to give an answer with his nod. Derek then placed a gentle kiss to his lips and smiled, “Then you need to go home. Spend the night with your dad. Talk to Nick. I’ll see you tomorrow. I promise.”

Stiles nodded and stole another kiss from Derek before he left the loft looking- and smelling- ten times lighter than when he’d shown up earlier in the day.

            Back at his father’s house Stiles was greeted by Scott and Melissa sitting in the living room with his father. They apparently had watched a couple movies in his absence. Nick was nowhere to be found at the moment.

“Hey Bud. Are you alright?” John stood up as Stiles entered the room.

“I’m better.” He nodded as he slid his hands into his pockets.

“I hope you don’t get mad at him, but your dad told us what happened.” Stiles looked past his dad to Melissa on the couch.

“Are congratulations in order?” Scott asked a little uncertainly.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly Stiles put on a tight smile and shook his head, shoulders rising up to his chin, “No. Because I’m not going to marry him.”

This was met with a chorus of ‘Thank God’ from his dad and Scott and an ‘I think it’s for the best’ from Melissa. Apparently Nick wasn’t well received by many.

“If you guys didn’t like him why didn’t you say anything?” A frown crossed his lips as they all looked a little sheepish.

“Stiles, he’s a good guy. And he even made you happy. For a little while at the very least. And even after he found out about everything he rolled with it. But then you started telling me about the fights you’d have about Derek and Scott, and even me…” John let out a sigh here, “When that all started I knew that he wasn’t gonna make you happy for much longer…”

Stiles frowned and now looked at Scott. The True Alpha was looking at his friend sympathetically, “He had a problem with Derek from the start. I saw it almost at once when you came in for your dad’s birthday that year.” Scott’s frown now mirrored Stiles’, “I knew there was gonna be a problem. But he made you happy. So I kept quiet.”

Melissa spoke up now, “Stiles, I always thought you should have stayed with Derek. But as someone who doesn’t know the dynamics of wolves and their mates, I never said anything. But I promise you this, if you were to have said yes to Nick I was _not_ gonna hold my tongue this time.” She sighed and set her shoulders, “Happy or not Stiles, I’ve never liked Nick. And the moment you told us that he tried to keep you from coming to see your _father_ because of _Derek,_ well that just sealed his fate with me. _You_ are _my_ son. I may not have given birth to you damn it, but you are as much mine as you were _ever_ Claudia’s. And you deserve so much better.”

By the end of her speech there were tears standing in Melissa’s eyes and Stiles found himself in her lap with his arms tight around her neck as he buried his face in her shoulder. Melissa had always been like a mother to Stiles as he and Scott had grown up. He knew that Melissa would never replace his own mother, but she was well able to fill that hole and make it a little easier with each passing day.

“I love you,” he whimpered into her shoulder and her arms tightened around him like they always had when he’d have a panic attack at her house.

“I love you too, Stiles.”

Sadly this interaction was cut short as Scott cleared his throat, “Nick is back…”

            Nick walked in to see Stiles standing in the middle of the living room with his back to the front door and Melissa, Scott, and the Sheriff looking up at Stiles.

He stepped up behind and to the side of Stiles, placing a hand on the small of the other’s back, “So did Stiles tell you the happy news?” He asked of the seated three with a wide grin on his lips.

“Yes.” Started Melissa with a smile on her own lips as she continued to look at Stiles.

“He did.” Scott went on, the same smile as his mother’s covering his lips.

“And we couldn’t be happier for him.” John was the one to finish, but this time he was looking at Nick with a glint in his eyes that Nick didn’t know how to read.

“That’s great,” Nick now beamed, “I was hoping you all would say that.”

His happiness would be short lived though as Stiles turned his head now, “Nikolas, we need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this will have a happy ending.  
> I promise~


	3. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things change...

            “What the hell do you mean we’re not getting married?” Nick practically screamed at Stiles but the Mage didn’t flinch in any way. “I asked you to marry me and put the ring on your finger! You didn’t say no to me!”

“Yes, but I wasn’t given a chance. And I didn’t say yes either.” Stiles was calm as he spoke. He had no idea where this new found calm was coming from, but he was rather glad for it.

“What do you mean you didn’t say yes! Of course you did!”

“No, Nikolas. I didn’t say anything. You put the ring on my finger and barreled on about your mother’s ideas for the cake, the venue, and the theme. You even got a phone call from your brother before I could give you any kind of an answer.”

Nick stopped for a moment and frowned, his mind clearly going to earlier in the day. “Well then why didn’t you stop me? Why make me wait and let me think that this was going to happen?”

Stiles raised an eyebrow at the man and cocked his head a bit, “Because you refuse to listen.” Stiles straightened now and leaned back in his desk chair, “Besides, I don’t think this would have worked anyway.”

“What do you mean, of course it would. We love each other.”

“Yes Nick. I love you. But I’m no longer in love with you.”

Nick’s face seemed to darken immensely at this. “It’s Derek isn’t it?”

Stiles rolled his eyes then and sighed, “No, Nick this isn’t about Derek. This is about you. And how you don’t listen, you don’t trust me, and you try to control what I do.” He shook his head now, “You never used to be like this.”

Nick looked at him so confused now, “I do listen. And I don’t try to control what you do. I trust you. I just don’t trust Derek!”

“But Derek has never done anything to deserve your mistrust! Yes! He loves me! Yes he wishes that I could be with him instead of you! But he likes you! You made me so happy, Nikolas! You could make me laugh, make me smile, you never made me cry, and we rarely had an argument! That’s why he liked you! He liked you because you made me happy! And when pack is happy, he is happy…”

Nick’s confusion became a frown, “So I don’t make you happy anymore?”

Stiles sighed and shook his head, “Not the way you used to Nick. I wish I could say yes to you. But I can’t marry you Nick. Not when I don’t feel the way I once did.”

By this point Stiles had taken off the ring and was holding it out to Nick. The other man took it and with a dark frown on his lips asked, “If Derek asked would you say yes?”

This annoyed Stiles immensely, but he had to tell him the truth, “Honestly? Yes.” At this Nick looked up and Stiles could see the anger and hurt in his eyes. “But that’s because I’ve always felt the same about Derek. I have always loved him. Ever since I met him.”

Again there was confusion, “So why were you with me?”

A soft smile now came to the lithe man’s lips, “Because when we started out, you made me feel just as happy and just as loved as Derek does. And if things hadn’t changed then I would have been perfectly happy marrying you.”

Nick seemed as if he understood now, for he nodded and curled his fingers carefully around the ring, “I’m sorry that things couldn’t remain the same.”

“So am I. But I wish you many happy days Nikolas. And I wish for you to find someone that can give you all the happiness that you and I shared for more days to come.”

At this Nick smiled and the pair shared one last hug before Nick packed up and headed back to Boston.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may well be an Epilogue to this. But I have yet to decide.  
> Until then, this is the end.
> 
> Love and Good Reading,  
> NeoCortex~


End file.
